TY - JOUR
T1 - The Rise of the Novice Cabinet Minister?
T2 - The Career Trajectories of Cabinet Ministers in British Government from Attlee to Cameron
AU - Atkins, Judi
AU - Heppell, Timothy
AU - Theakston, Kevin
N1 - This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: ATKINS, J. , HEPPELL, T. and THEAKSTON, K. (2013), The Rise of the Novice Cabinet Minister? The Career Trajectories of Cabinet Ministers in British Government from Attlee to Cameron. The Political Quarterly, 84: 362-370, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2013.12022.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Some commentators have observed that today’s Cabinet ministers are younger and less experienced than their predecessors. To test this claim, we analyse the data for Labour and Conservative appointments to Cabinet since 1945. Although we find some evidence of a decline in average age and prior experience, it is less pronounced than for the party leaders. We then examine the data for junior ministerial appointments, which reveals that there is no trend towards youth and inexperience present lower down the hierarchy. Taking these findings together, we propose that public profile is correlated with ‘noviceness’; that is, the more prominent the role, the younger and less experienced its incumbent is likely to be. If this is correct, then the claim that we are witnessing the rise of the novice Cabinet minister is more a consequence of the personalisation of politics than evidence of an emerging ‘cult of youth’.
AB - Some commentators have observed that today’s Cabinet ministers are younger and less experienced than their predecessors. To test this claim, we analyse the data for Labour and Conservative appointments to Cabinet since 1945. Although we find some evidence of a decline in average age and prior experience, it is less pronounced than for the party leaders. We then examine the data for junior ministerial appointments, which reveals that there is no trend towards youth and inexperience present lower down the hierarchy. Taking these findings together, we propose that public profile is correlated with ‘noviceness’; that is, the more prominent the role, the younger and less experienced its incumbent is likely to be. If this is correct, then the claim that we are witnessing the rise of the novice Cabinet minister is more a consequence of the personalisation of politics than evidence of an emerging ‘cult of youth’.
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2013.12022.x
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2013.12022.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-923X.2013.12022.x
M3 - Article
SN - 0032-3179
VL - 84
SP - 362
EP - 370
JO - Political Quarterly
JF - Political Quarterly
IS - 3
ER -